Dose, Plasma Level, and Treatment Outcome Among Methadone Patients in Shanghai, China

• Published in: Neuroscience bulletin Vol. 32; no. 6; pp. 538 - 544
• Main Authors: Jiang, Haifeng, Hillhouse, Maureen, Du, Jiang, Pan, Shujun, Alfonso, Ang, Wang, Jun, Zhou, Zhirong, Yuan, Weijun, Ling, Walter, Zhao, Min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 01.12.2016; Springer
• Subjects: Adult; Anatomy; Anesthesiology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Central nervous system depressants; China; Comparative analysis; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Female; Human Physiology; Humans; Male; Medical colleges; Mental Status Schedule; Methadone - blood; Methadone - therapeutic use; Methadone hydrochloride; Middle Aged; Neurology; Neurosciences; Opiate Substitution Treatment - methods; Opioid-Related Disorders - blood; Opioid-Related Disorders - drug therapy; Original; Original Article; Pain Medicine; Physiological aspects; Statistics as Topic; Treatment Outcome; 上海; 剂量; 多元线性回归模型; 患者; 治疗效果; 浆水; 血液样本; 酮; Treatment outcome; Methadone; Plasma level; Metabolism
• ISSN: 1673-7067; 1995-8218
• DOI: 10.1007/s12264-016-0059-0

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the blood levels of methadone in participants receiving methadone for the treatment of opioid dependence. After stabilization on methadone for four weeks, blood samples from 95 participants were collected between treatment weeks 4 and 12, before and after receiving doses of methadone, and its blood levels were measured. A multiple linear regression model was used to examine the associa- tion between methadone blood levels and the outcomes of methadone maintenance treatment （MMT）. Outcome dif- ferences between participants who had high （≥2） or low （〈2） peak-to-trough ratios were also compared using an independent sample t-test. The blood level of methadone was not correlated with the clinical outcome of MMT with the moderate range of doses given. However, the retention of patients who had a free peak-to-trough ratio 〉2 was significantly poorer than those whose ratio was 〈2. Thus, monitoring plasma methadone levels is unlikely to be effective for guiding dosing decisions in situations where compliance with MMT is already very high or when themethadone dose is no longer the dominant factor in determining the clinical outcome. However, monitoring plasma methadone levels is still helpful for guiding the dosage for patients with a rapid metabolism.